Talk about a loaded question! By the time you’re done reading this article you will likely understand why I choose not to go get manicures or pedicures, spend money on wild vacations, go shopping often, and have tremendous respect for all fellow disabled folks trying to make it from day-to-day.

As if breaking your neck were not insult enough having to deal with being paralyzed from the chest down, having bowel and bladder issues, pressure sores, respiratory infections, caregivers full-time, etc.; the financial burdens associated with any type of disability really can be more debilitating than the disability itself!

When one is newly injured there are pretty much two ways you can go with respect to finances.

The first is if a family does not have the financial resources to support the endless costs of being paralyzed. If this is the case then you have to rely on government support ranging from Social Security Disability to Medicaid/Medicare, and various other government assistance programs.

The second option for newly injured patients is if they do have the financial resources to support themselves whether that be comfortably or just barely able to get by. Fortunately, I have a family that has been able to help support me and provide what I needed while I was getting back on my feet and working, but not without having to budget everything down to the dollar on a daily basis.

Coming into the New Year I thought it only fitting to discuss the concept of perspective. I was asked by a fellow reader if I could touch upon the topic of how my mental perspective has changed over the last eight years since breaking my neck as opposed to just how my physical life has changed with being paralyzed. I will start off by saying my life perspective has changed drastically and I can’t be entirely sure if this is due to my accident or the fact that I’m also getting older. I suspect it is probably a little bit of both.

In general a change in perspective in life is quite gradual in my opinion, takes many years, and is usually preceded by many hardships along the way, which affect one’s opinions on many topics. When I broke my neck my world got turned upside down, which violently shifted my perspective on a lot of things in life very quickly, but more from a physical standpoint. I was so engulfed in trying to figure out how to live a life with a body 80% paralyzed that I didn’t have the presence of mind to think about how my mental health was going to change.

For the most part my perspective change has been for the positive, but there have definitely been some dark changes that I would be amiss not to dive into as well in light of always being open with my writing, and my life even though I run the risk of exposing myself further 😉

The old saying “we only have one life to live,” no matter how cliché it may be, means more to me now than it did prior to my accident merely due to the fact that I suffered a life altering event. I see so many folks who live simple (and I don’t mean that in a bad way), but happy lives, and go about their business not realizing how easily life can change on a dime. While it is easy to say that we will change our lives when something drastic happens – it is a lot easier said than done to take actionable steps each day to change. However, these small steps are not only key, but they can take very long time to see the effects of as they require determination, and will over a long period of time. Continue reading →